Johnson: A labor of love, so we never forget 9/11

Sheery Hall, right, and her daughters Bailey and Olivia gaze at a memorial display on the lawn of Scott Townley's home. ED CRISOSTOMO, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Even now, nearly a week later, Scott Townley's back is still on fire. It is from the crosses.

This is quite understandable after he demonstrates how he had placed each one of the 417 white crosses in the front yard of his Fullerton home, crouching and holding each one like a jackhammer before plunging the long screw at the base of each cross into the sod.

He had eight volunteers that first day, last Friday, begging to help him. He waved them all away.

“It's a personal thing for me,” Townley explained to them. It has always been that way.

Every Sept. 6 for the last 12 years, he has turned his front yard into a cross- and flag-draped memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. This year might be the most elaborate.

Townley, 51, is a longtime firefighter with the Orange County Fire Authority. Sept. 11 cut him to his core. He decided the day it happened that he would never allow people to forget.

“After it happened, I just felt devastated,” he said, trying hard to find the right words. “I went into the garage, made a sign and put out a bunch, maybe 20, small 2-foot flags.”

In the years since, the display has turned into a traffic stopper. I first saw it late Friday as he, his wife, Julie, and the other volunteers were finishing up. Perfectly placed floodlights illuminated the yard. It made your jaw drop.

On the left side of the house on the corner of Woods Avenue and West Fern Drive stand 343 white crosses with the names and firehouse of every firefighter who lost his life on Sept. 11.

This year they are grouped, not by rank as in years past, but by fire company. It is how most were buried, Townley says, the mere thought choking him up some.

On the right side are 74 white crosses for the New York Police Department and Port Authority police officers who lost their lives.

In the middle of the yard is a large, 6-foot white cross bearing the names of the civilians who lost their lives when the World Trade Center towers fell.

This year, too, his lawn is covered in a carefully laid out blanket of 2,965 small American flags, each one bearing the names of Sept. 11 victims, and where they were the day they perished.

“I took the whole list of victims, typed their names in 24-point bold and laminated them,” he explained. “I cut each name out, one by one, got fabric glue and pasted each one on the last white stripe of the flag on the bottom.”

It took Townley, by his estimate, 9½ months to personalize each flag.

“Sure, I've had people tell me I'm crazy,” he says, never completing the thought.

It was in 2002 that he went into his garage and began constructing the crosses. It took him 11 months to make all 417.

“I had friends come over begging me to let them help me,” he remembered. “I wouldn't let them.

Related Links

Sheery Hall, right, and her daughters Bailey and Olivia gaze at a memorial display on the lawn of Scott Townley's home. ED CRISOSTOMO, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Every year since September 2001 Orange County firefighter Scott Townley has set up a memorial display on the lawn of his home on the corner of Fern Drive and Woods Avenue to honor the victims of Sept. 11. ED CRISOSTOMO, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Every year since September 2001 Orange County firefighter Scott Townley has set up a memorial display on the lawn of his home on the corner of Fern Drive and Woods Avenue to honor the victims of 9/11. It took 15 hours with the help of 10 volunteers to place around 3,900 American flags. "When building this memorial I wonder who these people are ... were they fathers, mothers, sons, daughters and what kind of life they had before 9/11," said Townley. ED CRISOSTOMO, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
It took 15 hours with the help of 10 volunteers to place around 3,900 American flags on Scott Townley's lawn. ED CRISOSTOMO, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Bailey Hall, 6, reads the name on a cross at a memorial display on the lawn of Scott Townley's home. ED CRISOSTOMO, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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